1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reactor and a reacting method.
2. Description of the Background Art
It has been a conventional practice to react a first reactant and a second reactant at a contact interface thereof by bringing the both reactants into contact with each other. In order to improve reaction efficiency of the both reactants in this case, a contact area of the both reactants per unit volume is increased by bringing the both reactants into contact in the form of laminar flows. As an example, in a reactor disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-290971, a desired reaction product is produced by reacting a first reactant and a second reactant at a contact interface thereof in the form of laminar flows in a thin reaction channel. Specifically, in the reactor of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-290971, an inlet path for introducing the reactants into the reaction channel is provided and this inlet path is partitioned into two upper and lower sections by a rectifying plate. The first reactant is flowed in one section of the inlet path partitioned by the rectifying plate, the second reactant is flowed in the other, and these two reactants are brought into contact with each other in the form of laminar flows vertically separated in the reaction channel located downstream of the inlet path and react at the contact interface thereof.
In this reactor of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-290971, the first reactant introduced into the one section of the inlet path and the second reactant introduced into the other section overlap each other in the reaction channel while maintaining the layer thicknesses thereof. There is a limit in reducing the respective layer thicknesses in the sections located above and below the rectifying plate out of spaces of the inlet path partitioned by the rectifying plate in the forming process of these sections and, resulting from this, there is a limit in reducing the layer thicknesses of the first and second reactants. Thus, in the construction of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-290971, there is also a limit in increasing the contact area of the two reactants per unit volume in the reaction channel, with the result that there is a limit in improving the reaction efficiency of the two reactants.